A comprehensive immigration bill coming together in the Senate could include a requirement that all American workers obtain a national biometric identification card.

Under the proposal, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants, would get an ID card with information such as fingerprints embedded onto the card.

The effort is being spearheaded by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). They and their supporters say requiring companies to hire only people with worker ID cards would keep illegal immigrants from taking American jobs.

Privacy advocates fear such a card, which is common in European countries, would become a de facto national ID that would allow the government to track citizens.

Schumer and Graham hope to meet with President Obama to discuss this addition to the immigration bill.  An administration official told the Journal the White House had no position on the worker ID card.

Other advocates of such a card say that would mean “no excuses” for employers hiring illegal workers.  This advocates further state that more verifiable employee’s means more taxes thus more dollars for local, state and national programs.

With a debate on this issue just starting to heat up, it is worth looking at a “verify the status of your prospective employee” program that is already in place and being used in greater numbers every day.

E-Verify is an Internet-based system that allows an employer, using information reported on an employee’s Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, to determine the eligibility of that employee to work in the United States. For most employers, the use of E-Verify is voluntary and limited to determining the employment eligibility of new hires only. There is no charge to employers to use E-Verify. The E-Verify system is operated by the Department of Homeland Security in partnership with the Social Security Administration.

More than 189,000 employers are enrolled in the program, with over 8.7 million queries run through the system in fiscal year 2009. There have been over 5.5 million queries run through the system in fiscal year 2010 (as of February 27, 2010).

E-Verify is mandatory for some employers, such as those employers with federal contracts or subcontracts that contain the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) E-Verify clause and employers in certain states.

For Employers

E-Verify is a voluntary program for employers, with limited exceptions. Companies can access E-Verify online and compare an employee’s Form I-9 information with over 455 million records in the Social Security Administration database, and more than 80 million records in Department of Homeland Security immigration databases.  The number of registered employers is growing by over 1,200 per week.

For Federal Contract Employers

Federal contractors and subcontractors are required to use E-Verify as of September 8, 2009. Executive Order 12989 mandates the electronic verification of all employees working on any federal contract.